“When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you are not to enter his house to take his collateral. You must stand outside, and the borrower will bring the collateral outside to you.”-Deuteronomy 24:10-11
Alrighty, we’re chugging right along through Deuteronomy 24 and have now arrived at verses 10-13.
These verses are all about taking and holding property that is being used as collateral for a loan.
This is of course connected to the earlier command that forbid a lender from taking a borrower’s upper millstone as collateral under any circumstance…
…because to do so would prevent a person from meeting his basic needs to stay alive.
In other words, to violate that law would have been a crime against life.
The idea being communicated here is that it’s okay to take collateral from someone but there must be certain conditions and limitations in place to prevent abuse of this right.
So, in verse 10, we’re told a creditor is forbidden from entering a debtor’s home and forcibly taking collateral.
According to the Rabbis, doing such a thing would have been equivalent to invading someone’s home.
Not only that, but such an action could very well have led to violence and/or loss of life.
Therefore, the creditor is required to stand outside the main door of the house and wait for the debtor to bring the collateral out to him.
The Hebrew word being used for “collateral” here is ABOTE.
Interestingly, scholars these days have taken to translating ABOTE into “pledge” instead of “collateral”.
Why?
Because the term “pledge” can be applied to a wider variety of situations and is NOT just restricted to a physical item or piece of property to serve as a guarantee for money lent out.
Let’s take a look at verses at 12 and 13.
If he is poor, you are not to go to bed with what he gave as collateral in your possession; rather, you must restore the pledged item at sunset; then he will go to sleep wearing his garment and bless you. This will be an upright deed of yours before Adonai your God.”
This is interesting.
We’re told if a poor person borrows money, his collateral or pledge is to be returned to him before sundown (before the end of the day).
What’s this all about?
Well, here’s the thing.
Although it’s not very clear in the text, more often than not a poor person’s collateral was his own coat or cloak.
And in those days, one’s coat or cloak also doubled as a blanket.
That’s why the Scripture says “then he will go to sleep wearing his garment…”
I’ve only been to Israel during the steamy hot months of summer but from what I’ve heard, when the winter months come around, it can get pretty darn cold out there…even in the desert!
And yes, even snow will fall in both the northern and southern parts of Israel.
So what’s being communicated here is the borrower will give the pledged property (the coat or cloak) to his lender during the day and get it back at night so he won’t freeze to death.
Next, there’s something unique and interesting about this law I want you to catch.
Did you notice that most of the Torah laws we’ve studied so far are all “thou-shall-not-do” commands?
And if one breaks any of these “thou-shall-not-do” commands, one will be punished for violating them.
However, not so with this particular command here in Deuteronomy 24.
In this command to not hold on to a poor man’s coat during the cold nights, we’re instead given a positive motivation to obey.
We’re told this will be “…an upright deed of yours before Adonai your God”.
The King James version says “…and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God”.
And the NIV says “…and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God”.
All of the different English words notwithstanding, the original Hebrew here is only one word and it is TZEDEKAH which generally means “righteousness”.
So, the idea being communicated is if the lender obeys this commandment, he will be greatly blessed because of the mercy he has shown since his action will be viewed as “righteousness” from the Lord’s perspective.
Having said that, we shouldn’t forget the primary message here is that it is wrong to take as a pledge anything basic to one’s survival as a human being and should not be done.
I’m done.
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